Half Full of It

In TNR's "Taxis and the Meaning of Work" (Aug. 5, 1996), Glass introduces cabbie Edward Murdock, who tells him that young blacks don't want to drive cabs because they don't believe "that grueling work...is better than no work." He quotes Murdock: "If they took up driving...they could get out of the ghetto. It's a confusion of respect and the dignity in working hard." Another cabbie Glass rides with gets held up by a young black man: "I didn't notice, at first, the knife our passenger was now holding to [the driver's] neck."